Capture the Flag
by Pork Eggrolls
Summary: Here's some advice: don't ever underestimate your friends in a fight. Trust me, as a demigod, I'm full of experiences. I've fought almost any enemy you could imagine. But you wanna know which one was my toughest? It was my duel with Annabeth.
1. Chapter 1

Here's some advice: don't ever underestimate your friends in a fight.

Trust me, as a demigod, I'm full of experiences. I've fought almost any enemy you could imagine: dragons, sphinx, giants, and even gods. But you wanna know which one was my toughest fight? It was my duel with Annabeth in a Capture the flag game.

Seriously, after seeing my friend fight for her life against countless monsters, I thought I knew all of her strategies and tactics. But in just three minutes in my quarrel with Annabeth, I was certain I was gonna be chopped into mincemeat and be served in dumplings.

I'll tell you what happened in that game of capture the flag; I mean, I'll tell you what _really_ happened. Annabeth has her own version, but don't listen to her. She exaggerated the tale. You can be guaranteed that _I_ am telling the truth.

* * *

The evening started pretty normally. Wait, hold on, allow me rephrase that. The evening started normally for _us_. I'm pretty sure seeing dancing satyrs, a friendly hellhound, and singing dryads would be quite unusual for an ordinary mortal like you. But anyways, the night was going quite the same as any night before an epic game of capture the flag.

After dinner, everyone was very excited. I was garnering my armor when my friend Robbie, a newcomer from the Apollo cabin, tapped me on the shoulder.

"Hey Rob!" I greeted the kid, but Robbie had some sort of rueful expression on his face.

"Bad news Percy," The boy said, "The Dionysus cabin got grounded for stealing wine, meaning they won't be able to participate tonight's Capture the Flag. Instead, Athena's cabin got switched to the other team."

I groaned. Usually for Capture the Flag there were two teams: blue and red. I was with the blue team along with the Apollo, Athena, and Hephaestus cabins. Ares, Demeter, and Dionysus were in red team. But apparently, according to Robbie, Athena got switched to the red team for tonight, which was bad news.

Clarisse was from the Ares cabin, and she's not the type of girl who you'd want to mess with. She has a belligerent attitude and is as aggressive as her father. Usually, she's the captain for red team. The Demeter cabin used to not have many competitive people, until this other new guy, James, arrived at camp Half-Blood. And let me tell you, Jame's terror too. It took four muscular Hephaestus boys to best him in the last week's game of Capture the Flag.

But worst of all, the red team now has Annabeth.

Annabeth is some kind of prodigy. She's the smartest person I've ever met, excluding her mother, the Goddess Athena. Her strategies were usually the best, and the other kids usually follow her with no questions. But not only does Annabeth have brains, she also have quite a lot of fighting skills. She took down five hellhounds once, which was something even I'm not sure I could do. I'm almost certain she'll be the captain of red team's Capture the Flag this time.

On the other hand, in the blue team, I'm pretty much the best guy, so I'm usually the captain. Robbie is pretty good, but his skills only match that of James. The only other person on our team that has skills comparable to mine is Glian.

Glian was a very mysterious but polite and gentle guy. He always wear a dark cloak that masks his head, so we hardly ever see his face. He speaks very seldom, and on the times when he does, it was always when it was important. All in all, he's a shy but pretty cool guy.

There was the sudden sound of the bell, signaling that it was almost time for the match. All the other members of the blue team gathered around me, asking me what to do.

"We don't have Athena anymore, Percy!" A kid cried out.

"You have to go against your girlfriend, Annabeth!" Another blurted.

"We're gonna die!" Another panicked.

I shook my head. It doesn't matter what their skill levels are, but if all of them were as quiet as Glian, I think we would stand a much better chance.

"So here's the plan guys!" I called out. All the campers of team blue immediately fell silent, hanging on to my every word.

"We're gonna split into two groups." I said, "The first group will go and try to capture the other team's flag. The second group will stay behind and protect the flag. Any questions so far?"

I looked around, thinking there was no way that anyone could misunderstand such clear orders. Surprisingly, yet unsurprisingly at the same time, a hand of a little girl rose up.

"Yes, little girl in the green shirt?" I answered.

"That's a cute necklace you're wearing," She replied, "Where'd you get it?"

I wanted to scream in despair. The necklace was a gift from Annabeth for my 17th birthday, but it had nothing to do with the game.

"Lemme rephrase my question," I sighed, "Are there any questions related to the capture the flag game?"

I looked around once more and felt relieved when I saw no hands. And for the next hour, I assigned each person to a group.

* * *

Well, that was chapter one guys, how'd you like it? Please review and tell me what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys, thanks for the reviews for my first chapter! Your support gets me going! :) Please read my next chapter and tell me what you think! Thanks!

* * *

"You're going down, Seaweed Brain," the familiar voice called out to me as I stretched out my muscles.

I turned around and beamed at my friend Annabeth as she strode towards me.

"Hey, but since you're my boyfriend," Annabeth continued, "I'll make sure you don't get hurt _too_ badly."

The words wrung a chuckle out of me and I retorted, "Of course I won't get hurt too badly, none of you guys could lay a scratch on me!"

This was perfectly true. After I dipped into the river of Styx, every part of my body became invulnerable, except for this one section on my back. However, to keep game play fair, Dionysus has the ability to temporarily lay off the invincibility effect, so during the game, I will become vulnerable again. Not that it mattered; half of the red team couldn't damage me anyways even if they tried.

Annabeth smiled, "Hey that actually wasn't half-bad of a comeback-"

"Haha, gee, thanks," I replied.

"-for a three year old!" Annabeth finished, leaving me dumbstruck.

One of the downside of being the son of Poseidon is that you're not the brightest button in the box, so it's hard for me to come up with a good insult. But that doesn't matter to me either; Annabeth could have the first dibs with talk, but I'll definitely have the last laugh when we fight.

"I'll be sure to visit you in the hospital after the game," Annabeth laughed and walked away, leaving me with a feeling that she wants to get me more than the flag itself.

* * *

The battle horn sounded and the two teams split up to separate sides of the forest. We play the game in the forest of Camp Half-Blood. It was a great place to lay traps and ambushes, and perfect for sneaking to the enemies' territory unnoticed. Our team got the East half of the forest. It had a very uneven terrain so we stationed our flag on top of a hill, making it quite visible but hard to reach.

"Good luck man," Grover said to me as I jabbed our team's flag into the dirt.

"Thanks dude!"

"But just to tell you, if you do fight with Annabeth, make sure to come back in one piece!"

I frowned, "Are you supporting me or discouraging me?"

"Supporting," Grover answered, "But Annabeth has gone through a lot of training this summer. You need to be careful around her!"

"Whatever," I grumbled, not believing that even my best friend had lost faith in me. It was true that Annabeth had trained a lot since we came back from our last mission. I also haven't seen Annabeth fight for quite a while so I'm not sure how much she improved. But I'm still certain that there was no way Annabeth could beat me.

"Well, gotta go man," Grover said, "I'm not in this fight."

And as the satyr dashed away from the battlefield, the final bell sounded, starting the exciting game of Capture the Flag.

* * *

Glian and I dashed from tree to tree as we ventured deeper and deeper into team Red's territory. We followed a secret route I discovered recently, so I was pretty sure there wouldn't be any patrol guards here. Behind me, several other blue team kids ran to catch up. They lagged behind a while ago since they weren't as fast as Glian and I, which worked out quite perfectly because then the pair of us could scout the area before bringing our entire troops in.

There were nine of us in total. Robbie stayed back to guard the flag, so he was in charge of the defending group. I would have brought more people to come along with me, but then it would be a lot easier for us to be detected. Stealth was the key to winning when playing against Annabeth.

It wasn't easy trying to keep seven idiots quiet as they blundered through the forest, but somehow we managed it and reached a few yards away from Annabeth's fortress.

You see, the West half of the forest has this ancient fortress standing. No one knew why it was built or who built it. But instead of taking it down, the campers thought it would be a pretty cool place to hide your flag in for Capture the Flag. Usually, Clarisse doesn't use the fortress because she thought it was too unfair and not "manly" enough. But now that Annabeth is in charge, it was obvious that the fortress was going to be the flag's hideout.

I looked up at the very top of the fortress and saw two campers patrolling the area. They each had a bell in their hands, ready to ring for alarm when they see enemies. We could simply let them ring their bells and fight the red teams' defense group head on, but it would be a lot easier if we took the two patrol guards out and then sneak in.

"Ok, Glian and Heather," I whispered, "It's your turn now."

The little Apollo demigod named Heather looked at me and nodded. Glian just stared at my face.

"I need you two to shoot an arrow and take out the two guards," I ordered, "However, the tough part is that we need you to take them out at the same time. If one sees us shooting at his teammate, he'll ring the bell. So I want you to aim at the guards. When I say 'go', both of you will shoot at the same time."

Heather nodded again and got out her bow. Glian continued to stare at my face, his bow was already ready in his hands. I looked at the mysterious boy. He was the only camper in Camp Half-Blood that hadn't been chosen by his parent, so we don't know which god was his guardian. My first guess was that Glian was from Apollo since he was very handy with a bow. Then I fought him once in sword fighting and realized he was excellent with a sword as well, so we're not sure who he's from.

Glian notched an arrow and pointed it at a guard. Heather saw that Glian was ready and hurriedly followed suit.

"So have you guys aimed?" I said.

I saw them nod and called out, "Go!"

Two arrows darted through the air. Glian's projectile hit his target directly on the face, knocking him out immediately. A normal human would have died from the shot, but we demigods were made out of tougher stuff so I'm sure the kid will be okay. Heather's arrow, however, missed and flew away into the open sky. The other red team member stared at his unconscious partner, but before he could ring his bell, Glian fired another arrow, knocking him out as well.

"Nice work," I complimented.

"I missed," Heather said miserably.

"No worries, you'll get them next time."

Ring! Ring!

I wildly turned my head and almost swore. There was a third guard perched on the roof that I never saw and he was shaking his bell like a madman. I heard the scrambling of footsteps inside the fortress. The door of the castle opened, and demigods from Ares, Demeter, and Athena filed out. Among the group of red soldiers stood a Greek-armored Annabeth.

"Pathetic, Percy," Annabeth, "I expected a much better ambush from you. Guards, attack!"

They charged at us. The battle began.

* * *

Well, next chapter, it's Percy vs Annabeth! Who do you think will win? Please tell me who you think the victor will be in your review! :)


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks a lot for the reviews last week! Your reviews make me post chapters much faster than I would have without them. Please read and enjoy chapter three of the story!

* * *

I surged as fast as I could towards the other I team, knocking down five demigods in seconds. With the corner of my eye, I saw that Glian was doing the same; his silver sword whirled in the air, cutting down any opponent that dared come close to him. Suddenly, I heard Heather scream in agony. I turned my head and saw her fall to the ground, and before her stood Clarisse.

"I'm in this fight too," She exclaimed, and headed off to attack my other group members. Before I could stop the ferocious girl, another red member attacked me, sending me into a skirmish with him instead. After a few minutes, only four demigods remained standing amongst the battlefield: Glian, Clarisse, Annabeth, and me. The rest lay unconscious on the floor.

"Who's next?" Clarisse cried out. Glian answered her calling by sending her a slash, which she then blocked. I watched the pair fight for a moment and then turned to Annabeth.

"I guess it's just you and I," I said to her, "Which is good, I prefer it this way."

"Haha," Annabeth laughed, "Same here. Anyways, Percy, since I'm gonna be nice to you and allow you to attack me first whenever you want."

"What?" I exclaimed, "I can't do that! I'm better than you, so you should have the advantage of striking first!"

But Annabeth continued to shake her head, "No, no, no, I insist! You first."

I looked sideways at my girlfriend, thinking that there must be some kind of trap.

"No traps, Percy," Annabeth said, reading my mind, "I'm truly doing this because I believe you stand no chance against me. Besides, if I attack first and win, you'll be thinking to yourself that the only reason you lost is because I struck first.""

"Well, in that case," I shrugged, "Don't say I didn't warn you."

I moved towards Annabeth and then gave her a sudden half-hearted slash, meaning to frighten her. But Annabeth blocked the attack easily with a flick of her wrist, knocking my sword to my side.

"Oh come on," Annabeth sighed, "I know you weren't even trying on that blow. Try again."

I slashed at her again, this time with more power. But Annabeth's wrist flicked once more, deflecting my attack.

"Really, Percy?" Annabeth said, rolling her eyes, "C'mon, give me your best!"

My face scrunched up, feeling heated with those words. I raised my sword and slashed once again, giving it my all this time. Unexpectedly, yet somehow expectedly at the same time, Annabeth blocked my attack, using no more energy than the amount she used on my previous attempts.

"Pathetic, Percy," Annabeth smirked, saying the same familiar words she said moments ago, "I expected much better from you."

My mouth dropped, leaving it loose and agape.

"N-no way!" I dumbly said. I had just given my best attacked, and Annabeth was able to shield herself against it as easily as a dragon could shield itself from Blackjack.

Annabeth smiled, "My turn?"

This time, she attacked me, and I spent the next 5 minutes of my life wildly dodging her moves for dear life. She sliced left and right; they were so fast, all my eyes could perceive was a blur of steel.

Finally, fatigue dragged my body to a halt, and I thought my body could budge no more from her attacks. That was when Annabeth stopped.

"Tired?" She asked. From my heavy panting and slumped shoulders, it was quite obvious what the answer was. But my pride summoned some strength and managed to respond, "Nope. Not at all."

"Then let's fight some more," Annabeth smiled.

I groaned with pain and fatigue as Annabeth struck me on the head with her fist and knocked me to the ground.

"Do you surrender?" Annabeth asked, pointing her blade at inches above my face.

"No," I immediately replied, the words were gritted out of my teeth. Annabeth kicked my in the stomach and I yelped in pain.

"Now?"

I shook my head, "I can't"

"Why can't you?" Annabeth grinned.

"Because…" I mumbled, "My pride…."

Annabeth's smile grew even wider, "Surrender now, or I will continue to kick you until you do."

I looked up at her merciless expression and breathed, "No Annabeth… please… don't."

The girl threw her head back and let out a victorious laugh; her blonde ponytail swayed each time she chuckled.

"This is fun, Percy!" Annabeth said, "I am really amused by this."

She lifted up feet, ready to kick me again, but a sudden pair of fists struck her from the back of her head, knocking her unconscious at once. Behind her stood Glian, apparently he had defeated Clarisse.

"Thanks," I mumbled as I accepted a hand he offered me. Glain pulled me back up to my feet and gestured at the inside of the fortress. There was the flag. It's red cloth was waving in the wind, inviting us to pick it up and take it back to our side.

"You take it, Glian," I said. The struggle with Annabeth had sucked away all my dignity. In a way, I almost wished that Glian hadn't stepped in. It was my fight after all, and as a demigod, I either had to win it honorably or take in the defeat like a man. My team may have won from this, but I lost.

I sadly watched Glian scoop up the flag and sprint back to our team base. I followed quietly, vowing to myself that I would train much harder from now on.

* * *

Eh... maybe i made Percy get pwned too badly... But anyways, this will not be the last chapter. I'm sure I'll make more, such as making Percy stronger! Please continue reviewing! Oh, and any of you guys have any ideas what will happen next?


	4. Chapter 4

Ah, how long has it been since I last posted? Too long. Sorry about that fans, but I have an excuse.

See, a lot of my friends read my story, and they all told me it sucked and I should give up on the story. So I believed them, and I decided to quit this story.

However, today, I recieved some PMs saying that my story was not crap and is actually pretty good. So for you fans out there who liked my story, I've decided to continue it. Yay!

Of course, it's been a while since I wrote anything Percy Jackson related, and I kinda forgot Rodrick's style (crap, I'm not even sure if that's the author's name... I forgot, sorry!). So sorry if this chapter kind of sucks. I'll try to get my "Rodrick style" writing back if I can.

Well, anyways, let's get this chapter started!

* * *

Chapter Four

"Oh my gods, did you hear? Percy lost!"

"Yeah, I heard about that too. Man, I didn't know that Annabeth was that strong."

I sighed as I overheard the two demi-gods chatting about my defeat. Even though it was only Saturday, just one day after the capture the flag game, the news of my loss against Annabeth spread like wildfire. Once again, I found myself as the central gossip amongst the campers.

I sighed again, walked into the training room, and half-heartedly struck against a punching bag. My mind wandered once again to my fight against Annabeth. I cringed as I painfully remembered how easily I got destroyed.

"Ah, there you are!" A voice too familiar called out behind me. I didn't need to turn around to know it was Annabeth speaking to me.

"I've been searching for you since morning," Annabeth said, "So how're you doing?"

"Annabeth," I began, "About last night, please don't rub it in. I- I just can't take anymore humiliation right now."

Annabeth took one look in my eye and resignedly nodded. Thank God my girlfriend understood the concept of mercy.

"If you want, I can help you train," Annabeth offered.

"No it's okay," I answered, "I just want to be alone for now."

Man, I feel so depressed. But I also found it quite funny. I defeated incredible warriors like Ares, Luke, and Kronos, but in the end, I was bested by my girlfriend.

I continued to train as Annabeth complied and left the room. I twirled around Riptide, inventing complex sword movements and slicing up imaginary monsters. After about an hour, the doors of the training room opened once more.

"Perrrrcyyy!" Another voice bleated. I turned around and saw Grover running towards me.

"Ah, Grover," I said, "You were right. Annabeth did-"

"Nevermind that!" Grover exclaimed, "Chiron wants you to go to his office immediately!"

Immediately. Wow. I haven't heard Chiron calling for me with such urgency since the war against the Titans. What kind drastic thing had occurred this time?

I dashed across the field and barged into Chiron's office.

"I'm here!" I cried out. Six pairs of eyes turned to stare at me, and I realized I wasn't the only one called into the office. Annabeth, Gilan, James, Robbie, and Clarisse were also in the room with me.

"Ah, welcome, Percy," Chiron said, "I see that we're all here now, so I will explain what is going on. Relax. It is nothing world threatening."

Chiron got up from his desk and paced around the room. It was a habit I see old people do. They always seem to stroll around as they rambled. The only differences here were that Chiron was a centaur, and when he speaks, it usually wasn't random ranting.

"You see, a few days ago, Camp Semi-blood has sent me a letter for a Camp Challenge. On Monday, they will visit our camp and compete against us in countless events."

"Wait... Camp what?" I asked.

"It's Camp Semi-Blood, Perce," Annabeth answered, "Don't you know? There are two major camps for Demi-Gods. Camp Half-Blood, the one we go, is one of them, and the other is Camp Semi-Blood. I heard that their camp has some incredible demi-gods as well."

"So you mean, starting Monday, we're going to compete with them?" I asked.

"Exactly," Chiron answered, "This will be the first time we compete in years. There will be many events. Sword-fighting and archery are some examples. Of course, on the last day, there will be a Capture the Flag game."

Oh boy! This is going to be great. Though I don't really like them, Clarisse and James are admittedly very powerful. Imagine the fun when we all join forces for once and crush Camp Semi-Blood.

"Don't get too overconfident," Chiron noted, seeing our excited looks, "I will personally make an announcement this afternoon to all the campers. I wanted to tell you six in advance since you all are somewhat considered to be the representatives of this camp, and I want you to have extra time to prepare. However, I want you all to know that the members of Camp Semi-blood are not all push-overs. They do have some very tough heroes…."

Pshh. Yeah right. Chiron's probably only saying that so we won't get too arrogant. I mean, we defeated the entire Titan army. How could Camp Semi-blood possibly compare to our might?

And blissfully, I left the office as the meeting concluded, completely oblivious to how wrong I was….

* * *

Yeah, yeah. The chapter sucks... even more than my other chapters. Sorry it was extremely short too. See, I originally planned to make Percy train some more and then fight Annabeth again. But then I thought, what's the fun in that? So instead, I decided to invent an entirely new camp that will challenge Percy and the others instead. I hope it wasn't a bad idea...

Anyways, tell me if you guys like how this story is going. I'll try to update again soon!


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